I Became the Rich Family’s Stepfather and Couldn’t Stop Laughing - Chapter 20.2

The little cub maintained a frozen face while controlling the snowball toward the thick snow, squeezing a question through his teeth: “Daddy, can… can you take it now?”

Xi Ling grinned: “Silly child, Daddy is taking a video of you.”

Huo Xingmian: “…”

Xi Ling loved teasing the cub too much. Seeing the cub’s smile stiffen and his little face about to crumble, he immediately put away his phone and skillfully changed the subject: “Mianmian, do you want to compete with Daddy to build a snowman?”

He pointed to the big snowball the cub had rolled to his chest size: “This counts as yours. I’ll go build one, and we’ll see who can build the fastest and the biggest, okay?”

Huo Xingmian had thought Xi Ling was going to trick him again, but when Xi Ling finished stating the rules and brought out a large box of snow tools including tools for making snowballs and children’s snow shovels, the cub was tempted again.

His snowman was already more than half finished, and even if Xi Ling was an adult, he had to roll the snowball slowly. He had so many tools to use, and once he finished the snowman’s head, he could shovel lots of snow to stick onto it, making his snowman bigger… and bigger!

He, Huo Xiao Mian, was going to win for sure!

Huo Xingmian pondered carefully: “Daddy, don’t you, have tools?”

Xi Ling rubbed his hands: “Daddy has one, too. How about this? We’ll time it for half an hour, okay? Let’s see who stacks the biggest!”

Huo Xingmian thought about how he had a whole basket of tools and scanned the nearby steps, a winning plan already taking shape in his mind.

They agreed that whoever lost would have to give the other a half-hour massage, and then they went their separate ways. The cub stayed to stack his, while Xi Ling went to stack his on a different open space at the side of the main building.

The little tot first pushed the medium-sized snowball he had to his maximum pushable size, then cleverly pushed the snowball to the wall, so he could use the steps in front of the main building to transport the snowman’s head.

Twenty minutes later, little Huo Xingmian, relying on his clever little head and taking advantage of the surrounding environment, successfully built a snowman much taller than himself.

That wasn’t the end. He started using a small plastic shovel to throw snow onto the snowman, constantly increasing the snowman’s “waistline.”

Midway through, because he lacked pressure when throwing, the snow clumps tended to slide off. The cub even took off his gloves and used his warm little claws to increase the stickiness of the snowball surface.

Half an hour passed. The frozen-red little claws were put back into gloves, and he gripped the snow shovel like a cane in front of him. The cub looked up at his masterpiece, the smile at the corners of his mouth nearly reaching his ears.

He wanted to ask the heavens who else could compete with him?!

Although he didn’t quite know what a half-hour massage was, he, Huo Xiao Mian, was definitely going to win!

After admiring his masterpiece, the cub immediately swung his short legs and ran toward the area where Xi Ling was, leaving a string of happy little footprints in the flat snow.

The cub was afraid of falling, but he ran and walked as fast as he could to reach the scene.

To his surprise, the first thing that caught his eye was a behemoth a white tractor that could look directly at the second floor when standing next to it!

What stunned the cub even more was… Xi Ling had used this only “tool” to shovel all the snow in the area into a single pile, then easily built a humongous snowman.

Huo Xingmian stood dumbfounded, a series of question marks slowly popping up in his little head.

On the other side, Huo Siyi received a call from his driver.

The address had been changed to the manor. Driver Li came to pick him up as usual, but because the manor was a bit further from Chuangsi headquarters, he had to arrive half an hour early.

He usually drove into the basement garage and waited for his boss to come down by elevator, but this time, he drove to the manor’s garage entrance and found he couldn’t get in.

The gate wouldn’t open because it was sealed by snow. Unless the entrance to the garage was cleared, it couldn’t be used.

However, there were only two workers at the garage entrance, huffing and puffing while shoveling snow by hand. It looked like they wouldn’t be finished for a while, so Driver Li had no choice but to call his boss and change the pickup location to the main entrance of the main building.

Huo Siyi frowned after listening to the driver’s concise account.

“What?” It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what the driver said; it was that he felt it was a bit detached from reality.

Driver Li confirmed again: “The snow-shoveling workers said that the tractor used for clearing snow in the manor was… was driven away by the Madame.”

Huo Siyi: “…”

The man was walking toward the dining room, and he happened to bump into the nanny, Li Jie, who had just finished catching up on her sleep.

Huo Siyi’s gaze swept toward the empty dining room nearby, his pace pausing slightly, and he asked Li Jie with a frown: “Where is Xi Ling?”

Li Jie stood as straight as if she’d been struck by electricity. Ah! The first thing Sir did when he woke up was ask about the Madame! A complex feeling of bewilderment and sudden realization flashed through her heart.

“Building a snowman… yes, I heard he went to build a snowman.” Li Jie had been woken up by Nanny Bai, who had been muttering and worrying about the young master getting too cold.

Huo Siyi: “?”

Tractor, Xi Ling, building a snowman?

The lines on the man’s brow deepened as he approached the restaurant, only because outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, he saw Xi Ling building a snowman with the tractor.

All the unreasonableness now had a reasonable explanation.

Huo Siyi stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in silence for a long time. Li Jie stood by, waiting for orders, while secretly peeking out the window.

She saw the Madame, smiling so brightly he could film a toothpaste commercial, standing on the two-meter-high wheel of the tractor, hands on his hips and laughing at the cub nearby.

The young master’s little cheeks were frozen from pale to red, and his nose was red too. Standing in the snowy landscape, he really looked like a little snow fairy carved from ice.

However, it was clear that the beautiful cub wasn’t in a very beautiful mood; his little face was puffing up more and more. Yet the Madame was the type who didn’t care at all, the angrier the cub got, the more ferociously he laughed.

And the more ferociously he laughed, the angrier the cub got. It was truly a closed loop.

The cub looked at Xi Ling, who was showing off on the big wheels, then at the humongous snowman, which was about as tall as the wheels. He pouted and threw his shovel to the side.

Because he threw it too hard, his glove flew off with it, and his little body lurched forward with the inertia. When the plastic snow shovel hit the ground, the joint snapped, and it broke in two on the spot.

The cub vowed in his heart: He and his stepfather were like this shovel, from now on, they were completely finished! (The cub didn’t know idioms, so the original words were: I will never play with the stinky stepfather again!)

Xi Ling finished having his fun, jumped down nimbly, and scooped up the cub, who was busy being angry. He kissed the cub’s flushed little face and started with his sweet talk: “Does Mianmian like the ‘Snowman Mianmian’ that Daddy built for you?”

Huo Xingmian, who was pouting, stopped. His ink-jade-like eyes rolled: “Snowman Mianmian?” He pointed to himself, then at the humongous snowman not far away.

“That’s right~” Xi Ling took two big, black glass beads out of his pocket. “Look, these are the beautiful black eyes Daddy prepared specifically for ‘Snowman Mianmian.’ Do you like them?”

Xi Ling looked at the glass beads in the sunlight while speaking earnestly: “They seem pretty good, but they’re still much worse than Mianmian’s eyes.”

The items were just big beads Xi Ling had found from his bag of marbles. Although they were made of common glass, they were clear, black, and shiny, and the little guy hadn’t seen much of the world.

Huo Xingmian never expected such a twist. He had thought he’d been bullied fiercely by the stinky stepfather again, but the man had actually given him a super big “Snowman Mianmian” and even praised his eyes for being better than the super-beautiful beads. The cub felt light all over, and his face felt hot.

The cub pursed his little lips awkwardly, blinked his bright black eyes, and nodded: “It’s pretty!”

“Okay, Daddy will put the eyes on ‘Snowman Mianmian’ for you.” Xi Ling put the cub on the ground, first swapping hats and scarves with him.

Immediately after, he put one hand on the top of the tractor wheel, stepped on the groove of the tire below, used his core strength while taking advantage of the leverage, and nimbly flipped up.

Because he was wearing a short down jacket, a bit of his slender, taut waist was inevitably exposed during the movement. Xi Ling tugged at the hem of his clothes before he started putting the hat on “Snowman Mianmian.”

Soon, “Snowman Mianmian” not only had a hat and scarf, but also a pair of dark, shiny eyes.

Father and son worked together to make a nose and mouth for “Snowman Mianmian” and drew clothes buttons on it.

By the time “Snowman Mianmian” was completely finished, Xi Ling had placed the cub to the side and snapped dozens of photos. Under Xi Ling’s one-stop service, the cub’s eyes were filled with little stars of excitement and joy.

His stepfather had given him a big, big snowman, named it Mianmian, and even brought him along to dress “Snowman Mianmian” up into the world’s most beautiful big snowman.

Although Mianmian’s little claws and little face were frozen cold, the little heart inside his chest was warm and fuzzy.

The cub reached out and hugged Xi Ling’s neck, secretly thinking in his heart: Huo Xiao Mian has decided to forgiv… (crossed out) to be a good father!

It wasn’t until Xi Ling carried the cub back and passed by the large snowman the cub had built that he poked the cub’s red cheek and teased: “Mianmian must be a good baby who honors his bets. When do you plan to give Daddy a massage?”

The cub, who hadn’t even been moved for three seconds: “…”

Dammit, it’s still a stinky stepfather!!!

Huo Siyi silently took in the interaction between the big one and the small one, especially Xi Ling’s nimbly agile movements…

Nanny Li, who was standing to the side with her head down and trying to be invisible, also secretly took in the sight of Huo Siyi watching the father-son interaction. Her heart was a tempest of shock.

A moment later, Huo Siyi sat down at the dining table.

He sent messages to Secretary Dong and Xiong Bin, postponing the morning meeting by half an hour, and also… that matter he’d been investigating halfway… perhaps it was necessary to continue investigating.

When the various dishes filled the dining table, the famished father and son returned.

Xi Ling froze when he saw Huo Siyi, only then remembering the fact that there was a physical ATM in the house. The cub in his arms also stiffened for a moment; neither of them could spare the energy to act out their “coquettish” anger.

With an ATM that radiated cold air and pressure in the house, the little tails of the father and son were both suppressed to varying degrees. The two of them were like elementary students who had just met their homeroom teacher, and they both tucked their tails between their legs.

Since it was a rectangular dining table, Xi Ling and the cub usually took one of the spacious long sides each, inhaling their food while facing each other.

Now that there was a Huo Siyi, the man sat directly in Xi Ling’s usual spot, leisurely cutting the steak filled with myoglobin.

Xi Ling sat there, lamenting inwardly that there was no hope of seizing the throne.

Suddenly, the cub in his arms began to squirm. Xi Ling let go in confusion, and the cub immediately slid to the ground while hugging his leg, then ran toward his own seat without looking back.

Getting down, running, sitting in his seat, the whole process was done in one go, as if he were terrified that Xi Ling would steal his seat for inhaling food.

Xi Ling: …

He’s truly filial.

In reality, Xi Ling had never thought of stealing the cub’s seat. He looked at the narrow side, but many dishes were too far away. Finally, faced with the choice of freezing or not eating well, he decisively chose to sit next to the cold-air-radiating ATM.

Although they were sitting next to each other, there was a considerable distance between the two chairs. Xi Ling kept in mind the basic principle of keeping his distance from Huo Siyi and never bothering him; his only goal was to inhale his food quickly.

The kitchen had prepared Chinese food for Xi Ling and the cub. After they were seated, the last dish, small fennel fritters, was placed on the table.

Because the fennel fritters were on his left, Xi Ling reached out subconsciously. He was so hungry that his mind was filled with food, and he completely forgot that the delicious little fritters had just come out of the pan.

“Hiss! Ow!” Xi Ling called out in pain while shaking his hand.

By the time he came to his senses, he was horrified to find that the piping hot little fritter had been flicked by him onto Huo Siyi’s dinner plate, mixing awkwardly with the meat-pink steak.

The cub, who witnessed it all: “…”

Huo Xingmian held his little bowl and tried to shrink under the dining table.

Xi Ling felt suffocated, especially when he looked up and met Huo Siyi’s cold, ink-blue eyes; his gaze immediately scurried downward as if fleeing.

Huo Siyi’s cutting motion stopped in mid-air, his slender fingers losing their force as they gradually returned to their cold-white color, the platinum watch clutched around his bony wrist.

He lifted his wrist, put down the knife and fork, and straightened his shirt sleeves. Under the natural light, next to the dinner table filled with the “smoke and fire” of daily life, he looked exceptionally ascetic.

Xi Ling secretly gulped. He knew Huo Siyi was waiting for an explanation from him; he should have just apologized for his “hand error,” instead of staring at the other man’s hand with his eyes wide open.

Xi Ling took a deep breath and lifted his eyes again, from the messy dinner plate upward, and up again…

Then, he discovered that Huo Siyi’s shirt collar was buttoned to the very top, his tie was a textured Windsor knot, and his Adam’s apple… was also damnably attractive!

Slurp slurp… even Bilibili doesn’t have such…

“Knock, knock.” Huo Siyi tapped his finger on the table.

Xi Ling came to his senses instantly, looking at the long, thin fennel fritter on Huo Siyi’s plate: “Uh…”

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration hit him: “Little flying stick… is coming?”